Microbial Biofertilizers for Soil Health

Biofertilizer refers to biological preparations containing living microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, algae, actinomycetes, or their metabolites. These microbes are found in the rhizospheric region or inside plant parts. The soil contains both macro- and micronutrients in their entirety. Nevertheless, these nutrients exist in forms that are insoluble or complex, rendering them inaccessible to plants. These biofertilizer microbes can help to fix atmospheric nitrogen and converting directly into ammonia, phosphorus solubilization, and mobilization, making it easily available to plants, in conjunction with nutrients like potassium, sulfur, zinc, and silicates. Biofertilizers assists in enhancing soil’s texture, structure and water-holding capacity, protect the plants from salinity and drought stress, and are thus regarded as a sustainable option for preserving soil health. On the other hand, chemical fertilizers can also enrich the nutrient composition of the soil, yet keeping in mind the problems of environmental degradation, microbial inoculants as fertilizers need to be promoted for sustaining soil health.